Lenbachhaus Presents Its First Ever Comprehensive Show of the Blauer Reiter Group

A woman takes a look at the painting 'Rotes und Blaues Pferd' ('Red and Blue Horse') by German artist Franz Marc in the exhibition 'Der Blaue Reiter' ('The Blue Horseman') in the Kunstbau in Munich, Germany. The Lenbachhaus displays its outstanding collection of 'Blue Horseman' artists from 19 June to 26 September 2010. EPA/MARC MUELLER.

MUNICH.- With this exhibition the Lenbachhaus is presenting its first ever comprehensive show of its outstanding collection of graphic works by artists of the Blauer Reiter group, including watercolours, drawings and prints.

The exhibition will include the museums complete holdings of graphic works by Albert Bloch, Heinrich Campendonk, Robert Delaunay, Alexei Jawlensky, Eugen von Kahler, Paul Klee, Else Lasker-Schüler, August Macke, Franz Marc, Alexander Sacharoff, Eugen Schiemann, and Marianne von Werefkin, with many of these works being presented to the public for the first time.

In addition to around 130 works by the artists mentioned above, the exhibition will also include a selection of the best watercolours and drawings by Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter (50 each), and 20 original graphic works by Alfred Kubin. Thus a total of around 250 works will be on show.

The Lenbachhaus holds comprehensive collections of works by Kandinsky, Münter and Kubin, many of which have already been presented in various exhibitions and catalogues. Kandinskys drawings and watercolours have been seen in several exhibitions since 1974, and his prints were presented in 2008 in a special exhibition. A representative selection of 250 of Alfred Kubins drawings was shown in 1990, and his prints in 1999.

An informative catalogue of Gabriele Münters prints was also published to accompany an exhibition in the year 2000. In the case of Münters original graphic works, however, many works from our collection of around 200 from all periods of the artists career have never been shown or published. This exhibition will fill this gap, particularly focusing on her works from the Blauer Reiter years.

Hitherto no exhibition has been entirely devoted to Blauer Reiter graphic art and prints. Our exhibition will offer visitors the opportunity to see attractive points of convergence between the works on paper by the various protagonists  between Franz Marcs woodcuts The Birth of the Horse and Jumping Little Horses and the dynamic portrayals of horse riders in Kandinskys watercolours, between Franz Marcs brilliantly colourful postcards and Else Lasker-Schülers Prince Jussuf Illustrations, or between the resplendent watercolours of August Macke and Paul Klee, like Garden Gate in Tunisia and Föhn Wind in Marcs Garden.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue listing a significant number of the Lenbachhaus Blauer Reiter graphic art holdings, with colour illustrations of all the works on show and closer analysis of several aspects of Blauer Reiter graphic art within the context of the artists broader work and the art history of the period.